The Thing About Space
by nehamerchant123
Summary: "The thing about space is, there's a lot of it and not much else." The paladins are lost in space after Haggar dispelled the wormhole. Now it's up to Princess Allura, Coran and the 4 mice to find the 5 paladins. Cross-posted on AO3.
1. Prologue

Prologue: The universe is a pretty empty place.

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron or any of it's characters.**

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 _In this chapter: Altean history and the war with Galra, as told from Coran's memories._

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He sometimes wonders why they never saw it all coming. All the signs were right there. Every trait that made Zarkon the perfect Black paladin also made him most likely to turn on King Alfor. But maybe that's why they couldn't see it, they believed he was perfect in his role so, why should he want more?

The day it all went wrong was just an ordinary day. Looking back on it some people said that they knew something would happen that day, that things were different that morning. Coran thinks those people were confused. If there were any signs to be seen none of them has anything to do with that day.

That day was the last day of inver, Altea's cold season. There was nothing special about that day, the weather wasn't particularly unique and there were no large celebrations to occur for at least another moon cycle. It was a truly normal day.

Until, all of a sudden, it wasn't. One tick people were waking to bright skies and a light breeze. The next tick buildings were collapsing, fires were burning and people were dying. The Altea Royal Academy was the first to fall. All the large monuments and attractions, like the Tower of Nunville and the Palace of Glass, soon followed.

Coran remembers everything about his home planet. Altea was a beautiful planet with a rich history. Coran's family had always served in the Altean Court so it was a part of his duties to learn everything there was to know about Altea and its history. Now he stands in an ancient castle, one of the sole survivors of the destruction of the only home his family has ever known. It has been ten thousand years since the planet's end and now he is the only person who truly remembers the history of the once great planet. But her remembers everything, all the smallest of details.

Altea was always a very advanced society, even in its early years. The citizens built everything form the ground up. They invented language and communication methods. They made technology so advanced that many planets still cannot replicate or understand, even after all this time. Coran believes that their success is mostly due to their strong connection with the universe's quintessence. Quintessence has many properties and, in some shape or form, it was used to power everything in Altea.

The first inhabited planet that the Alteans ever found was the Galran planet known as Doom. The Galra were a very simple species back then, they had no technology and lived mostly in caves, hunting for survival. The King of Altea befriended the Galra leader and the Galra became the first diplomatic ally of Altea. The Alteans helped the Galrans improve the society and in return the Galran offered support whenever Altea required it.

Many more diplomatic visits were made and many planets allied themselves with Altea. Between their trade agreements and their flourishing land Altea was booming. Unfortunately, the planet itself was rather small and with the population growing at such a fast rate the planet would not sustain the people for too much longer. The Royal family at that time, King Alfor's parents, King Cobra and Queen Lorna, discovered an answer to their problem in the form a large planet on the outer rings of the Altean star system.

The planet had a similar solar cycle but the environment was much harsher. The King and Queen decided to relocate half of the Altean citizens to this new planet, regardless of any differences or difficulties it might pose. They reasoned that the citizens would adapt to the new environment and build their new lives accordingly.

When the time came to start relocating the citizen's the King and Queen also realized that their sister planet, which came to be called Pollux, would also need a ruler and an heir. Queen Lorna knew that it would be a difficult decision but she told King Cobra to go to Pollux and to take one of their twin sons, barely two solar cycles old, to the planet to rule. King Cobra chose to take Prince Castor, Alfor's younger twin, with him while Queen Lorna would continue to rule over Altea.

The future looked bright for Altea and Pollux but it didn't last too long. Many Polluxians could not adjust to the harsh planet and they had to develop new customs altogether. Their lifestyles changed dramatically and they found that they could no longer afford the same luxuries they once had. Even keeping relations became difficult.

Three solar cycles after the relocation King Cobra and Prince Castor returned to share the young Prince's birthday with his brother. It was then that the Queen noticed just how different they were. Rumors started to fly. People started calling the Polluxians unrefined, savage brutes. They became known as thugs and Alteans started incorporating them into bedtime stories to scare children into behaving. Altean criminals were sent to Pollux, abandoned and exiled into the wilderness.

Things got worse when Queen Lorna died early and Alfor took up the throne at the young age of 16 cycles. King Alfor, young and naive, jealous of his brother for having their father, came to buy into many of the rumors and as soon as his father died and Prince Castor took rule, he abandoned Pollux. No more shipment of supplies arrived from Altea, no more meetings were held to discuss the state of the planet.

Many advised Alfor against this decision, most vocal of them was the Black Paladin and young Emperor of the Galran Empire, Zarkon. He was Alfor's best friend back then but even he couldn't convince Alfor to let go of the petty grudge. Zarkon knew more than most what it was like to be abandoned by one's family, his whole family was driving the Empire into the ground and when he tried to reason with them he was exiled. But Alfor didn't see the situation the same way as Zarkon.

Several solar cycles later King Alfor begins to see the error of his ways. Pollux and its citizens are suffering and their economy is failing. King Castor came back to Altea to ask for help to save his planet. Alfor finally put aside his jealousy and he started sending as much help as possible to his brother. He called in favors from Altea's allies and tentatively he reinstates diplomatic relations with Pollux.

King Alfor eventually got wind that King Castor's second child was a female only a few cycles older than his own Princess Allura. They decide that having the princesses meet and befriend each other would ensure future diplomatic ties between the planets. Things do not go quite as they hoped though.

Coran had been raising Princess Allura ever since her mother's untimely death and he remembers the first time he ever saw her truly afraid was when she met her cousin, Princess Romelle. Romelle was nearly twice Allura's height, with far less grace and much more angry. Young Romelle blamed the Atlean Royal Family for the state of Pollux and she liked to take it out on Allura.

Both princesses grew up together, they studied and trained together until one day Romelle was taken back to Pollux. All of sudden Pollux had cut all ties with Atlea and Coran remembers only confusion. Not long after that Zarkon left for Planet Doom and for a while there was peace.

Only after the first attack did they discover what was truly happening. The Galran, under Zarkon's rule, were rebelling against Altea and Pollux had joined them because Princess Romelle was engaged to Zarkon's son and Red Paladin, Sincline. Only Pollux's youngest prince, Prince Bandor who was the Yellow Paladin at the time, chose to betray his family and fight against Zarkon.

The war carried on for several cycles before Sincline turned on the Galra and returned to Altea with the Red and Black Lions of Voltron and Princess Romelle in her wedding gown. Romelle at first refused to talk, believing that her father was right to choose Zarkon's side. But when a package came from Zarkon with her parents' heads she gave in and told every secret she knew.

It wasn't long after that they finally gave in. Allura tried convincing her father to fight with Voltron but King Alfor knew it was too risky. He instead locked Allura in a cryopod and left Coran with her in hopes of saving the future.

Coran remembers everything and when looks back at it all, thinks about all the suffering and sacrifices he can't help but feel that they have failed King Alfor. Now he stands here, in an empty castle floating around the star system where Altea used to sit. Allura has been rescued but now the Paladins are lost somewhere in outer space and until the Castle of Lions is repaired they have no way no knowing if they are even alive.

Now Coran stands in this empty room and wonders if things would have been different had they had Romelle and Bandor with them to help Allura. Would things be different if he had told Allura of their survival and they had searched for them before trying to take on Zarkon?

Now Coran sits. He sits and thinks.

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 **A/N: So this actually started as a one-shot which revolves around Keith teaching Allura about Earth culture. Then I started planning and it became this monster. So I hope you guys enjoy the ride because this will be long.**

 **So far I have a basic outline of 7 chapters, short summaries for each different plot line and a long list of very random ideas. This story doesn't have a planned ending just yet and nothing is set in stone so, if you guys have any suggestions then please drop a comment.**

 **In terms of shipping, I don't have anything planned right now and even if I do include some shipping it will not be a large focus. Also Klance is not happening. Sorry, I know it's a fan favorite and I do enjoy them too but everyone writes them and I just won't be able to compare to the other 1000 or so Klance fics (most of these can be found on AO3).**

 **For the record this is my first fanfic so any and all advice and criticism is greatly appreciated.**

 **Thanks for reading and I hope y'all have a wonderful day :)**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: There's a lot of it but not much else

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 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender or any of its characters**

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 _In this chapter: Princess Allura has tracked the locations of the Lions but one of them ended up back on Earth._

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It takes over 12,000 mega-ticks, more than 8 planetary revolutions, before she can try locate any of the Lions. By this point Allura and Coran are past the stage of panicking, they are too busy running around fixing the ship and drinking large amounts of cafala (or caffeine, as Pidge calls it) to stay awake.

Between them and the mice they have gotten a total of 1,500 ticks worth of sleep, so by the time the ship is actually running and Allura is able to look for the Lions signatures, she is so bone tired that she collapses on the platform and Coran falls with her when he attempts to catch her.

"Say, Princess, maybe we should get some sleep before you try and find the paladins?" Coran asks nervously. Allura stands up with as much grace as she can gather and looks him dead in the eye.

"We don't have time to rest now. The paladins could be in serious danger and we have to find them immediately!" she exclaimed.

"But, Princess, you can barely stand," Coran pointed out.

"That doesn't matter, Coran," Allura sighed. "We need to at least find the general locations of the paladins, then we can come up with a rescue plan. Zarkon's witch could be looking for them this very minute, so we must act now while we have the upper hand."

Coran thinks for a minute before he replies, "What advantage do we currently have? Not to undermine your obviously well thought idea but Zarkon might very well have found the paladins so I'm not sure we're the ones with the upper hand."

"Well that just proves my point then, doesn't it?" Allura tries once again to activate the locating system but she trips over herself. Coran gives her a concerned look before looking to the mice for help. The mice nod and start mentally communicating with Allura.

Allura sighs and gives in, "I guess you have a point there." She turns back to Coran. "Alright we will sleep until we are rested and then we will locate the Lions," she says dejectedly.

Coran, for his part, looks rather relieved. He helps the princess stand and they make their way to the bedchambers.

It takes 2,000 mega-ticks before they wake up, rested and prepared to locate the Paladins. Allura walks back to the controls and turns the location systems on. She brings out a map of the universe and she stands with her eyes closed in concentration.

It takes a while, the systems are still not in perfect condition and she still isn't working at her 100%, but slowly the Paladins locations starting coming to her and she programmed them into the map.

The first one was Lance. It seemed that he was the closest to their current location, on a small planet that somehow escaped becoming a part of Galra territory. Allura found it a bit odd that the planet remained free despite being within Galra territory. Did they just not care enough for this planet? Maybe it had no life or resources?

Pidge appeared next. She was in the same direction as Lance but she was stuck in deep Galra territory. The Castle of Lions had no data on any planets within that area so rescuing her might prove to be a problem.

Hunk came to her after a long while and she found that he was farther up North than the other two, who both sat South of where the Castle of Lions is currently situated (she tries hard to filter out the castle's location, tries not to think of her old home being in this exact spot over 10,000 years ago). Hunk wasn't on any particular planet but he was sitting just outside Galra territory.

She isn't surprised by how long it is taking to find Keith, the Red Lion has always been a suborn one and life-force connection or not it has proven to always be more difficult to find than all the other Lions.

She is surprised to realize that she find Keith before she can find Shiro. She barely considers the implication of Keith's distance from their own location, she is too busy panicking to think about that at this moment.

She concentrates harder, looks deep inside herself but no matter what she tries she can't feel any connection with the Black Lion or its pilot. She panics for a moment, thinks that maybe Zarkon's forces got to Shiro first.

But then she feels it, the connection. It's there only for a tick before it blinks out again but it still reassures her of his safety. She tries to look again, zooming in around the general star system on the map in some effort to narrow her search. After 100 ticks she feels the connection and quickly makes note of the general location and marks it on the map with a large circular area around the cluster of planets and asteriods. It happens that Shiro is actually located within the same star system as the castle.

Satisfied with her work she steps back and looks at the locations. Coran steps up beside her and she can feel his confusion. Now that they are getting a good look at the locations Allura begins to feel unsure about what is in store for them.

"This is going to be rather difficult," she sighs.

"Well, no one said saving the entire universe would be easy," Coran tries to joke. Coran thinks again before an epiphany strikes him. "Allura, maybe we could try using the communication system to get in touch with the Paladins!" he exclaims. "We might be able to tell them to wait for us or give them some sort of message."

Allura slaps her forehead, "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?! Coran open the communications systems."

Coran tries to get a hold of the Red Lion first, remembering the terrible beating it took at the hands of Zarkon. "Hello? Keith? Are you there?" The answer is only static. He goes through the rest of them and finds that the signal won't reach any of them.

Allura continues looking at the map before finally making a decision. She knows that Coran won't approve of this but it must be done.

She steels herself before announcing, "We will have to work separately. I'll go get Keith on my own since he is the farthest out and while I'm at it I'll try to negotiate with Earth and maybe gain some support. You will find the other 4 Paladins while I am away, starting with Shiro, then Hunk, Lance and Pidge. In that order if possible."

Coran, rightfully, freaks out. "Princess Allura, that is a horrible idea! Without you I won't even be able to open the wormhole or check the Paladins locations! Not to mention how disastrous it would be if Earth chooses not to cooperate! What if something were to happen out there and how would I be able to contact you!? No, no, no, no! You cannot do that, there are too many unknown factors that we can't account for."

Allura takes a deep, calming breathe before explaining in more detail. "Keith is simply too far away and the Galra have been closing in on Earth for some time now. If we try to gather all the other Paladins first we might lose Keith, the Red Lion and the entire planet Earth to the Galra. We cannot risk that and from what the Paladins have told me the other humans might be more likely to side with the Galra so we have to make peaceful contact with them first. The Castle of Lions is far more advanced than anything the humans will have ever seen and they might mistake us for enemies if they see it. The Red Lion was by far in the worst shape out of all the other Lions so we cannot expect that Keith will be able to fight back if the Galra does come to Earth.

"I will take some time to plan everything out before I leave and I will store my quintessence in containers so that you may open the wormholes. Pidge has been working on a sort of long distance communication device based on those cellular telephones that Lance is obsessed with, so if you can get that working then we can use it for interplanetary communication. I will use a wormhole to go to Earth's moon and form there I will use a pod to travel to Earth. This way I will have an escape vehicle in case it becomes necessary. I will also carry some tools with me so that I can check the status of the Red Lion

"We will check on the Paladins locations constantly before I leave so if they start to move we can at least find out a general direction they will head and then you can calculate their general location. It would be the most accurate way of doing this but it will give you an idea. Also if I manage to sort everything out on Earth then I can use a wormhole to travel back to the castle.

"At the moment Keith is in the most critical position and we can't lose any of the Paladins. Shiro also wasn't in a great place mentally so you must find him as fast as possible. We are just lucky that he is the closest to us so it shouldn't take you too long to find him."

Coran, having no choice but to accept this plan, nods. Then he has a realization, "What about Pidge? Isn't Pidge in far more danger, being stuck in Galra territory and all?"

Allura shakes her head, "The Green Lion is the only Lion that has been equipped with the stealth technology so she will be able to stay hidden for some time."

Coran nods again, finally accepting that this is the best course of action that they can come up with at this current moment. Allura turns back to the map and sighs again. If only she hadn't gotten captured, none of this would have happened then. But the past is the past and now they can only try their hardest to fix it before things worked out in Zarkon's favor.

She wonders how different things would be if her father was still around. At this rate even her cousin Romelle would do a better job. No, scratch that, her cousin had once sided with the Galra, there is no guarantee that she wouldn't have done it again.

Coran speaks up again, "Princess, if I may ask a favor? Could you give some of these communication devices to the Paladins families? The Paladins do miss them dearly and we don't know how long we will be traveling with them so I think it might be nice for them to be able to contact their family."

Allura decided that it would make them much happier. "Of course, Coran," she says with a small smile. Allura looks at the map again and she feels the weight of it all crushing her. The Paladins were all so far away from each other, they wouldn't be able to form Voltron if they needed it. She remembers something Keith once said to Lance late at night, _"That's the thing about space, there's a lot of it and not much else."_

She remembers that he had been talking about how peaceful space seemed. She wonders if he still believes that, that the space is big and peaceful. She personally thinks that she stands by Lance's opinion of it. _"The universe is a pretty empty place, it's only peaceful if you like loneliness."_

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 **A/N: Yay, second chapter! Also Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was released today, who's excited about that? Though I'm not really a big HP fan my sister is and she has wanted so badly to know what will happen lol. I'm one of those cynics who thinks that it will just ruin my opinion of the original series, so I'll probably have to avoid that fandom until things calm down (God knows it's about to get so crazy now).**

 **On a different note I recently found a VLD fic on called 'Scattered' by avidbeader which has a rather similar plot to this story but it's moving at a much faster pace so good check that out. It manages to capture the fast paced humor and happy atmosphere of VLD really well.**

 **Also, if you guys don't mind I would like some music suggestions for the Paladins. Over the course of this story I hope to bring out more of their personality, preferences and history but I'm not really into music and I don't know a lot of artists so I would love it if you guys gave me some ideas. Even just genres and artists will do.**

 **On a side-note: The chapter names will all be lines or variations of lines that will be mentioned by characters at some point or another and not necessarily in the same chapter the title is used for. Also this story will have some flashbacks, mostly to explore the history and stuff but unlike the prologue no chapter will be entirely composed of flashbacks.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Any and all advice and criticism is greatly appreciated.**

 **Thanks for reading and I hope y'all have a wonderful day :)**


	3. STORY UPDATE

**JUST A QUICK UPDATE ON THE STORY FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T CHECK MY BIO TO OFTEN. CHAPTER 1 IS GOING TO BE REWORKED AND A TON OF IT WILL JUST BE CUT OUT FROM THE STORY ENTIRELY. ONCE I HAVE THAT CHAPTER FIXED UP I'LL FINALLY MOVE ON AND CONTINUE THIS STORY. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS WAITED FOR THIS TO CONTINUE AND I PROMISE IT WILL COME IN DUE TIME.**


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